Hutchison was the only driver to break the 2m12s barrier in Q1 where his primary opposition came from Matthew George whose Generation AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4 lapped 0.2s shy of the pace-setting McLaren 570S GT4, while Academy Motorsport’s Will Moore was another half-a-second further back in third.

“We’re starting from the right place, anything could happen, but we’re quite confident with our old tyre pace, it looks like a strong pairing for this weekend”, said a happy Hutchison. His co-driver Mckay added “It’s been quite tight in GT4 and in that session we smashed it. I think I was third overall, but I was a second clear of any McLaren, so I’m pretty happy. The team has done an excellent job and now Finlay, and I have the fun part and will hope to bring it home from pole position.”.

Matt George’s decision to race two cars this weekend meant his Am co-driver James Holder would be up against the Pros in the second session. That effectively gave Verschuur’s pair a 0.7s head-start against their nearest Silver Cup opposition, an advantage Mckay was unlikely to waste.

Indeed, the Scot extended the pair’s lead in the final reckoning to 0.893s over Jan Jonck, who moved the Academy Aston Martin he shares with Wood up three places to secure a spot on the front row.

There was also an impressive all-around performance from Fox Motorsport’s Mark Murfitt and Michael Broadhurst who claimed the Pro-Am pole and third overall aboard their Mercedes-AMG GT4. Murfitt was fastest of the Am drivers and seventh overall in Q1 before Broadhurst set the quickest time of the day and a British GT4 qualifying record in the second session.

Fourth went to Matt Nicoll-Jones and Will Moore’s Academy Aston Martin, the pair finishing 0.019s shy of third in the combined classification, while Ben Tuck and Ben Green’s Century BMW was only 0.015s further back in fifth.

Nick Jones and Scott Malvern’s Team Parker Racing Mercedes-AMG completed the top-six ahead of Jordan Albert and ’s McLaren and the first of Steller Motorsport’s Toyota GT86 GT4s driven by Sennan Fielding and Tom Cannan.